13 July 2011 edition
The 13 July 2011 edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann is the 18th edition of the program to air on Current TV. No. 5 Guest commentator John Dean discussed the continuing NewsCorp scandal in the light of calls from Jay Rockefeller, Peter King and Frank Lautenberg for criminal investigations in Rupert Murdoch's American enterprises, including allegations that his employees tried to buy the cellphone numbers of Nine-Eleven victims, as well as repudiations of Murdoch from Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Guest commentator Michael Wolff discussed the withdrawal of Murdoch's bid to purchase British Sky Broadcasting, and the admission by Christopher Bancroft that he would not have sold the Wall Street Journal to Murdoch if he had known then what he knows now, as well as the possibility that Murdoch may sacrifice his own son, James Murdoch, to protect himself. No. 4 Guest commentator Markos Moulitsas discussed continuing debt ceiling negotiations, including Eric Cantor's claimed that the President walked out on negotiations, Mitch McConnell's proposal to give the President unilateral authority to raise the debt ceiling, Michele Bachmann's absurd claim that the United States will not default if the debt ceiling is not raised, and the possibility that America's credit rating will be reviewed for possible downgrade in preparation for the chance that the debt ceiling is not raised. No. 3 Guest commentator John Nichols discussed the recall elections in Wisconsin in which six Republican-sponsored ersatz "Democratic" candidates were defeated by candidates actually sponsored by the Democratic Party, as well as the implementation of new statewide voter ID legislation that doesn't go into effect until February of 2012. No. 2 In Worst Persons, Ann Coulter was awarded the bronze for selling only 67,000 copies of her latest book, Demonic, in four weeks; Cynthia Davis was awarded the silver for quitting her post as St. Charles County Republican Chairwoman before other members of the committee could fire her; and Amy Koch was awarded the gold for inciting a beer and cigarette shutdown in Minnesota due to the expiration of licenses that cannot be renewed as a result of the state government shutdown. No. 1 Guest commentator Mark Ruffalo discussed the environmental impact of fracking and his activism efforts in Albany, New York, as well as the documentary Gasland. In a fifteen-minute Web Extra, Ruffalo discussed the absence of long-term health and environmental studies of the effects of hydraulic fracturing and the lack of oversight of the industry, the attempts by carbon-based-energy companies to stifle the green energy movement by flooding the market with so-called "cheap" gas, the origin of his political activism, which emerged from his time studying acting with Stella Adler, who insisted that part of being an artist was giving voice to those without one and championing social justice, and the use of persoanl fame to accomplish a political goal, as well as accepting from Olbermann the position of Countdown Contributor on green energy issues. See Also Category:July 2011 editions 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 1